How Am I Doing?

One of the main jobs of a pastor is to pray for his congregation.

Acts 6:1-4

6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word." NIV

As your pastor, I take this job very seriously. I pray for each of you by name.

Now, how many of you would like to know what I pray for you?

Alright, I pray Colossians 1:9-14 for you. Here’s my reasoning; Klamath Assembly of God is in many ways just like the Colossian Church when Paul wrote the book of Colossians. We meet together for worship, evangelism, service, discipleship and fellowship. So, I figure that a prayer from Paul’s heart tailored for the Colossian Church would be a good prayer for pastors to pray over their churches.

Let’s read the text: Col 1:9-14

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

NIV

Now that’s a great prayer:

In this prayer Paul asks God for 6 specific things: That they…

1. Be filled

2. Live a worthy life

3. Bear fruit

4. Grow

5. Be strengthened

6. Give thanks

Alright, let’s take these 6 specific things that Paul prays and examine them one at a time. Now as we look at each one of these, I want you to be thinking, “How am I personally doing in each of these areas?”

1. Be filled – filled with what? The knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The Greek word for Knowledge is “gnosis” and in this text the preposition “epi” is added on to it. “epi” means “over”, so the idea that Paul wants to convey to us is that this knowledge that he wants us to have is a complete knowledge – not just a partial knowledge.

And what is it that he wants us to have a complete knowledge of? Gods will!

He wants us to have a complete knowledge of God’s will for our lives.

How many of you have ever struggled with trying to find out what God’s will was for your life or a particular circumstance in your life?

Well, Paul prays that we would find out what God’s will is by using spiritual wisdom and understanding. This language might be confusing to some of you, so lets turn to 1 Corinthians 2:10

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

You want to know what God’s will is? Then you need to read the Bible and pray and God’s Holy Spirit will give you the answer. It’s that simple. The problem is that most people aren’t willing to put in the time and do the work to discover God’s will for their lives.